alden, 1987. the role of telemachus in the odyssey, hermes
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The Role of Telemachus in the 'Odyssey'
Author(s): M. J. AldenSource: Hermes, Vol. 115, No. 2 (2nd Qtr., 1987), pp. 129-137Published by: Franz Steiner VerlagStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4476555Accessed: 27/05/2009 02:30
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THE ROLE
OF
TELEMACHUS
IN
THE 'ODYSSEY'
The
'Odyssey' s, among other
things,
the
story
of a hero
who,
after
long
absence
abroad, returns
n
the nick of time to
prevent
he
remarriage
f
his
wife.
There aremany
examplesof this theme in
traditional iterature:
learly
the storycatches
popular
magination.
Variants
occur
within
modern
Greek
literatureand
the
returning
usbandmaytest his wife's
fidelity2
as
Odysseus
tests that of Penelopeby his observationof her behaviour.The wife may,in
her turn,
require hat her husband
provehis
identity
to her3.
The returnof
the husband o claim his own
may
be thwarted:
Alcmenewas deceived
by
Zeus
in the form
of
herhusband,
Amphitryon.
Agamemnondoes not
arrive
n
time
to
prevent
his
wife's
remarriage,
ut thereare
hints
which
suggest
hat the
feast
at
which
Agamemnon
perishes
may
have
something
o do with
a
wedding:
he
and his
companions
are cut down
as
pigs
are
slaughtered
f
ya
fl
tpdvcp
fl
?iXaiivj
tsOaXui4.
Usuallya departinghusbandmakesa bargainwith hiswife, thatshe is not
to
give
him
up for lost nor
takeanotherhusband
until a
certain ime:
Penelope
says
that their
time limit was
when
she sawtheir
son growing
a beard5.
When
the
time has
elapsed,
she is not
eager to
remarry.The
wife of
Dobryna
Nikitich,
a Russian
hero,waits
twice the six
years
agreedwith her
departing
husband:at
the end
of that time,
she is forced
by the
Tsar o
marry he only
man her
husband
forbadeher to
consider6.
Everyheroine
eventuallycomes
under
pressure o abandon
whatappears o
be an
untenable
position, and
the
contest for the
hand
of the
brideand/or the
wedding
feast is set
up.
I
R. BEATON.
The
Folk
Poetry
of
Modern
Greece,
Cambridge
1980,
pp.
13-18,
27-34,
discusses
variants of
'Mikrokonstantinos' a
latter-day
Odysseus-figure,
who in
some
versions
leaves his
wife
in
the care of
his
mother. The
wife's
virtue works
miracles
during
his
absence,
despite the machinations
of her
mother-in-law,
who
is
punished
on the
hero's return.
2
For
example,
by
demanding
that she return
a
kiss which he
gave
to her
dying
husband
(J.
Th.
KAKRIDES,
Homer
Revisited,
Lund
1971,
p.
153),
or
by
saying
that
she is now
required
to
marry
him,
whom
she has not
recognised
as her husband
because of
their
long
separation
(R.
BEATON,
IOC.
cit., p.
28).
3
By
knowledge which
only a husband
would
have,
of marks on
her
body
(J.
Th.
KAKRIDES,
loc. cit., p. 153) or by revealing a scar or birth-mark (a recognition token) on his body (R.
BEATON, lOc.
cit., p.
24).
4
Od. X,
415.
s
Od.
o, 269-270.
6
N. K.
CHADWICK, Russian
Heroic
Poetry,
Cambridge
1932,
pp.
80-90.
9
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130
M.
J.
ALDEN
At a
time
when
it is reasonable
to assume
that
Odysseus
must
be
dead,
and
all the conditions for Penelope's remarriage have been fulfilled, the suitors
have,
on
one
level,
been
enjoying
the legitimate
traditional entertainment
of
contenders
for
the
hand
of
a noble
bride which
we see also
in the context
of
Hippocleides'
famous
remark >>oui
ppovti4
'1nnoxXci&r
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The Role of Telemachus in the
'Odyssey'
131
The Saxonking,
Horn,
arrives rom Ireland o find the
feast
at
whichthe mar-
riage s to be announcedof his sweethearto Modi of Reynis:he makeshimself
known to
his mistressand
slaughters
Modi and his followers
2.
Occasionally,
as with
Agamemnon,
he husbanddoes
not arrive n time to
prevent
his
wife's
remarriage,
nd is killed like an unsuccessful uitor. The
guilt
of the wife
in
Klytaimnestra's
osition,
and of her new husband is well
illustrated
n
the
story
of Martin
Guerre,
n
which the unfortunate
nterloper
s
executed
3.
Horn was not
married,but only betrothedto the sweetheartwhom
he
rescuedat the last moment from her unwanted
uitors.The
fisherman's
on
in Grimm's
tory
of the
King
of
the
GoldenMountainwas
similarly
betrothed
to his faithlessprincess:when he interrupts he marriage east he tells her:
?)Wenn
man den
alten Schlussel
gefunden hat,
bedurfe man des
neuen
nicht14.
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132
M.
J.
ALDEN
In
cases
of
betrothal
there are
no
children.
Where
the couple
are
married,
in stories
like
that of
Messer Torello,
in which everyone has acted honourably,
no harm
is
done
or intended
towards
the two
little
boys
of
the first
marriage.
However,
in
cases
where
the
suitors
merit
punishment,
they have very
often
fur-
ther demonstrated
their
wickedness
in their
attempts
to do
away
with
the
children
of the first
marriage18.
The
wickedness
of
step-parents
is
illustrated
in
the Asiatic
Kirghiz
epic,
'Joloi',
which
tells the
story
of the
marriage
of Joloi's
sister, Kardygash,
to
the
Kalmuck
prince,
Karacha,
and
their
usurpation
of Joloi's principality.
The
dethroned
hero is
imprisoned
by
the
Kalmuck
prince,
Urum Khan. Joloi's
son,
Bolot, is born in his absence, and Kardygashand Karachatry to slay the child,
who is rescued
and
brought
up
in a
nomadic
settlement.
But
Bolot
later
returns
and
rescues
his father19
The parallels
with
the
'Odyssey'
are
very clear:
the hero
Joloi
is
detained
by
imprisonment,
as
Odysseus
is detained
by
Calypso.
The usurpers
want
to
do away
with the
infant
heir:
the suitors
in the 'Odyssey'
want
to
do
away
with
Telemachus.
A
point
not necessary
to
my
argument,
but which
I include
to
show how
close a
parallel
may be,
is the
fact
that Joloi even
goes
to the
Under-
world
with a black
shamanka20:
a Circe-figure?
The story of Alpamysh is another parallel to the 'Odyssey', and is found
in many
versions
in different parts
of Asia21. Alpamysh
and Barchin
are
cousins
and are betrothed
in the cradle.
When Barchin
grows
up
very
beautiful,
the
giant
champions
of
the
Kalmuck
Shah
fall in love
with
her:
she decrees
a
contest
in a horse-race,
in
archery,
and
a
wrestling-match,
and secretly
sends
messages
to
Alpamysh,
who comes
to
win her
with the aid
of his magical
winged
war
horse.
Alpamysh
later
returns
with
forty
warriors,
to
avenge
the
cruelties
which
are
being
done
to his
father-in-law
in the
land
of the
Kalmucks.
He is
met
by
an
old
witch,
Surkhail
(Circe?)
at the head
of forty
beautiful
maidens. After a feast, all the forty warriors are slain except Alpamysh, who
is
imprisoned
in an
underground
dungeon
for seven
years,
as
Odysseus
was
held
for seven
years
on
the island
of
Calypso.
Eventually
the
daughter
of
the
Kalmuck
Shah falls
in love
with
Alpamysh
and
helps
him
to
escape.
Alpamysh
returns
home
in
disguise,
dressed as
his father's herdsman.
He finds
his
mother
18
It
seems
that
step-parents
very
often
hate
intensely
the
children
of
the
first
marriage
(Guardian,
8th July
1985, p.12).
These
stories
may
be a
kind of
wish-fulfilment
fantasy,
where
the
wish
is that
the
original
parent
will return
and >>punishoTelemachy>the
irst
tale
from the
host,
tales from
the
guest
until morning
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The
Role of
Telemachus in
the
'Odyssey'
135
in an oral
poet's
repertoire
of themes: on
the lines of the traditional
Kirghiz
pattern of Alpamysh, a new poem, 'Yadgar', was composed, in which the
deeds of the
legendary
hero's son are variations on the
themes
of his
father's
adventures
33.
The
'Odyssey' refers
repeatedly
to the
vengeance
of
Orestes on
Aigisthus:
as well
as
Athene's reference to
it
in
book
a,
Proteus
tells
it
to Menelaus: it
is
mentioned at
several
points
3.
D'ARMs and HULLEY
think the
poet
is
try-
ing
to link
the tradition of the return
of
Odysseus
with
that of the noblest
house
in
the epic
tradition, the house of
Atreus35. This
may indeed be the
case,
but there is another
possibility,
which will
now be
explored.
When Athene comes to see Telemachus at the beginning of the 'Odyssey'
she
says
lax
x'aye
got
TO6&
FiAR
i
aTpVcO;
XTatXctov
i
a&Too10
To;00q 7irt;
?i;
'08oi0o4;.
iaivC; gEv
xe(pakv
TE,
xa
o'gpaTaL
XaVX
Eolxaq
xva36
ZiV(0 6
Telemachus
in
his
reply seems
less
than quite
certain:
pilTp
FV
TER?
nO1lows>R?al,auxp
ty
s
oI'
o16 o5
yap Rc
ti;
qtv
y6vov
aiT6oq
vEvo37.
Odysseus
departed
before
Telemachus was of
an
age to
remember
his
father.
Everyone
except
Telemachus
uses
recognition
tokens to
satisfy
himself that
Odysseus
is
who he
says he is.
Eurycleia
sees
the
scar38,
Eumaeus
and the
cowherd
see it
later39.
Penelope
asks many
questions and
sets many
trials,
culminating
in
the
proof
of
the
bed4O.
Laertes
is
shown the
scar
and
told
the
trees
which he had
given to
Odysseus
when
he was a
child4l.
KAKRIDIS has an
attractive
treatment of
these
recognitions and
how they
have
been
taken
and
modified from folk tradition42. However, there can be no such tokens be-
tween
Odysseus
and
Telemachus,
because
Telemachus
knows
nothing
of his
father
except
what he
has
been told.
That is
why, after
initial
disbelief, he
ac-
33
N.
K.
CHADWICK
V.
ZHIRMUNSKY,
Oral
Epics
of Central
Asia,
Cambridge
1961,p.
327.
34
Od.
a,
29-43,
298-300;
Od.
y,
193-198,
302-310;
Od.
8,
512-547.
35
E. F.
D'ARMS
& K. K.
HULLEY, The
Oresteia-Story
in
the
'Odyssey',
T.A.Ph.A.
77,
1946,
207-213.
36
Od.
a,
206-209.
37
Od.
a,
215-216.
38
Od.
x,
392-393.
39
Od.
q,
221.
?
Od.
,183-204.
41
Od.
X,
331-344.
42
J. TH.
KAKRIDIS,
Homer
Revisited,
Lund
1971,
pp.
151-163.
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7/26/2019 Alden, 1987. the Role of Telemachus in the Odyssey, Hermes
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136
M.
J.
ALDEN:
The Role
of
Telemachus
in the
'Odyssey'
cepts
it
when he is told
by the
stranger
in the
swineherd's
hut
that
he, the
>>out-
sider>der
Held
von
Irrfahrtenverschollene
atte
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GUISEPPINA
ASTA
DONZELLI:esura mediana e trimetro
euripideo
137
bined with
the motif of the blood feud. Because
the
blood
feud
requires
he
son to return romexileto avengehis father'smurderers, elemachus oes on
a quest
whichdoes not revealhis father'swhereabouts.
The
avenging
on
then
wreaksvengeance,
not on his father'smurderers, ut
with his father,on the
unsuccessful or
wicked) uitorsof his mother.
The combinationof themes
of
story-telling
which
we find in the
'Odyssey'
has resulted n a workof artwhich
goes beyond
the folk-tradition
rom which
its
material
s
derived.
Belfast,
NorthernIreland
M. J.
ALDEN
CESURA
MEDIANA
E
TRIMETRO
EURIPIDEO
Com'enoto, le cesure
del trimetrogiambico
ragicosono
la
penthemimeres
e
la
hephthemimeres'.
Non mancano
tuttavia
versi
tragici prividelle
due
ce-
sure
fondamentali, quali cioe
esibiscono
fine di
parola
in
posizionediversa
dal secondo
anceps
o
dal
secondo
breve,come la
cosiddetta
cesura mediana
o
fine
di
parola dopo
il
terzo longum2.
Si
b spesso affermato
che la
cesura
medianasi presenta aramenten Eschiloe in Sofocle(se ne registrerebberon
tutto 25
casi),
mentre
Euripide
ne
userebbe
pi'uspesso (ca.
100
casi), ma in
coincidenzacon sillaba elisa
e cioe solo in
forma
>>attenuata>spez-
zare((
a
meta versi
come
il
trimetro
giambicoo
l'esametrodattilico.Che per6
un
trimetro
con
cesuramedianafosse
sbagliatoo insopportabile
er un orec-
I
La
frequenza
della
penthemimeres nei tre
tragici
oscilla tra
il
70%
e
I'80%,
con valori me-
diamente piuialti in
Euripide; vd.
J.
DESCROIX,
e
trimetre
iambique,
Macon
1931, 261-68.
2
Per es.
Aesch.
Pers. 251
0c
av
Vgt
nXI1yt
XaTtTp0apxaTtook.6, Soph.
Ai. 855
xaitot
ot
jLv
X,XEt
ltpOGcv8flOO)
&,UViV.
3
P.
MAAS,Greek
Metre (tr. H.
Lloyd-Jones),
Oxford
1962, ? 103;
K.
RUPPRECHT,
infuh-
rung in die
griechische
Metrik,
Munchen
19503, 33;
B.
SNELL,
Griechische
Metrik, Gottingen
19623,
13;
W.
J. W.
KOSTER,
Traite
de
m6trique
grecque, Leiden
19664,
V
15,6;
D.
KORZENIEWSKI,
Griechische
Metrik, Darmstadt
1968,48.
Ma
per
un
resoconto
piuipuntuale
dei
fatti vd.
ora M. L.
WEsm,
Greek
Metre,
Oxford
1982, 82s.
4
Gia R.
PORSON,
ella
prefazione all'ediz. di
'Hecuba'
del
1802, p.
XXVs., aveva
notato:
>>Longearior
est ea
licentia, qua
integri
pedes,
tertius et
quartus, vel
integras
voces vel
vocum par-
tes
facianto (cita
come
esempi
Soph.
Ai.
1091,
Aesch.
Pers.
509). Successivamente P.
ELMSLEY,
n
Classical
Journal
VIII,
16, 1813,
428-32,
sottopose
ad
esame
la tradizione
euripidea
e ridusse
al
minimo
i
casi
di
cesura
mediana.
L'esiguo
numero fu
ulteriormente
ridotto
da
A.
ScHMI4ir,
De
caesura
media
in
Graecorum
trimetro
iambico,
Diss.
Bonn
1865,
24-30, che, ravvisando
nella ce-
sura mediana
una
grave
offensio,
corresse o
espunse
i
versi
euripidei che la
esibissero. ELMSLEY
e
SCHMIDrL
ottolinearono
come
l'elisione rendesse
piui
sopportabile
l'anomala
cesura.